Bridezilla

by Paige Tyler

Travis McAlister would never have believed it. The woman he loved more than anyone else in the world had completely and totally lost her mind. Chloe Sheridan, his beautiful, smart, sexy girlfriend had always been the sweetest, most level-headed person he’d ever known. In fact, it was part of the reason he had fallen in love with her. When he came home fried from a hard day at work, she was always the one who could calm him down. When their married friends got into arguments, Chloe was the one who stepped in and smoothed everything out. But that level-headed girl he knew and loved had vanished. And he could pinpoint the exact day she had disappeared. It was the same day they had finally set the date for their wedding.

Now, he was more than ready to admit that they had been a little ambitious by putting themselves under such a time constraint - five weeks was a bit short to pull off a big wedding, he supposed – but drastic measures had been called for. He and Chloe had been dating seriously for five years, and engaged for over two of those. They had almost set the big date a half-dozen times, but things just kept coming up and they kept putting it off. First, there was college, then work, and after that, class reunions. None of them were events that should have interfered with getting married, but somehow they had.

It wasn’t that he and Chloe didn’t want to get married, because they were definitely committed to each other, not to mention big time in love. They just couldn’t seem to find the time in their busy schedules to plan a wedding.

In fact, they would probably still be hemming and hawing about actually setting a date if it hadn’t been for the event planner at the country club. They had met with the woman a half-dozen times since they had officially become engaged, but had never been able to decide on a date. Then, one evening while they were making dinner, the woman had called out of the blue to ask if they were finally ready to book the country club. Chloe had started to shake her head when Travis had relayed the woman’s question, only to grab the phone out of his hand when he told her that the woman had informed him that if they weren’t going to commit to a date right then, they would need to have their reception somewhere else. Apparently, the woman had gotten fed up dealing with them.

Going somewhere else was not an option, though. Chloe’s parents had had their wedding reception at the country club, and she had wanted to have hers there ever since she was a little girl. So, at the ultimatum, Chloe had agreed to the first – and only - date the woman had allotted them. Then they had pulled out the calendar and seen how close that date really was. That was the point when panic mode had taken over.

Though he’d never actually planned a wedding before, five weeks had seemed like plenty of time to him. It should be simple, especially since they already had the country club booked for the reception. He figured, what the heck, people get married every day, how hard could it be? All they had to do was find a church, rent some fancy clothes, buy some flowers, get a cake, do the whole chicken or beef thing, and voila, they’d be done.

Okay, maybe he had oversimplified things, but even if it were a little bit more complicated than that, there should be no reason to freak out. But his calm, little Chloe had.

If he had been more observant, he would have realized there was trouble brewing that very first night. Right after setting the date, they had opened a bottle of wine and had a romantic dinner, which had been followed by some of the best sex they’d ever had, at which point he was ready to go to bed. Chloe, however, had pulled out a pad of paper and the phonebook, saying she wanted to jot down a few quick notes before she went to sleep.

But instead, she hadn’t come to bed at all. He had gotten up the next morning to find her sitting in the living room, wired on caffeine and looking exhausted. Papers were strewn all over the room, the phone book had been torn apart, and her notepad was full of cryptic scrawls.

When he had asked her what she was doing, she had smiled and said, “Planning the wedding, you goof!”

Thus had begun the strangest four weeks of their relationship. She had been sweet, loveable Chloe one night, and Bridezilla the next morning. And from that point on, everything seemed ten times more complicated than he ever imagined it could be.

After a quick shower and some breakfast, they had headed out to go tell her parents the good news, which was when Chloe ran through the list of everything they would need to get done before the big day.

“Honey, there’s so much to do!” she exclaimed as they walked into the garage. “Do you realize how difficult it’s going to be to book a church on such short notice? Besides that, we have to pick out invitations, figure out what’s going to be on the menu, decide if we want white or chocolate cake, choose between a band and a DJ, decide what color flowers we want, find a photographer...” She stopped, her eyes suddenly going wide. “And a gown! I have to find just the right dress, not to mention figure out what my maid-of-honor and bridesmaids are going to wear. And then we’ll have to pick the tuxes for you and your groomsmen...” She paused again, but only for a moment. “Crap! I almost forgot about wedding favors! Where the heck am I going to get those on such short notice?”

Travis stared at her, completely stunned. Not only had Chloe said that entire thing without taking a breath, but he didn’t think he had never heard her say crap in all the time they’d been together.

“Hon,” he said as he opened the car door for her. “Maybe we should just elope. You name the place, and we’re there.”

Chloe looked at him as if he had just told her that they were moving to Mars. Then she had yanked the car door closed. Wisely, he hadn’t mentioned eloping again.

The next four weeks had been quite a learning process for Travis. He hadn’t known so much could go into planning a wedding. It felt more like they were orchestrating a return trip to the moon. And he couldn’t seem to do anything right. Starting on that first morning, Chloe had bombarded him with question after question about everything from the style of the invitations, to the type of paper they should be printed on, to the color of his cummerbund, to what kind of food they should serve, to the number of tiers on the wedding cake. When he told her what he actually thought, she would look at him like he was an idiot and disregard whatever he said. Then, when he tried to be conciliatory by saying that whatever she picked would be fine, she accused him of not caring about his own wedding. He couldn’t win, no matter what he said.

He wasn’t the only one that got on Chloe’s bad side, either. Since they had set the date, his fiancée had taken her ire out on every single person involved in their wedding, most especially her maid-of-honor, Kate. Chloe seemed to panic about the smallest thing, and when that happened, she tended to snap at everyone around her. He knew that if he was getting tired of it, then her girlfriends must really be fed up with her. And Kate, bearing the brunt of the complaints, must be ready to scream.

Travis had never seen this side of his girlfriend before, and he didn’t know how to handle her. He had tried to talk to her about staying calm, but it had had absolutely no effect. If anything, she had gotten even more on edge because she thought he was sharp shooting her. So, he had just bitten his tongue and backed off. Which had left Chloe totally unchecked and even more out of control. The best Travis could do was try to stay out of situations he knew were going to upset her.

Which was why he wasn’t eager to meet with yet another DJ that Chloe had found. After going through four bands and just as many DJ’s, he was ready to just forget the whole idea and go with a CD player. It would certainly be a hell of a lot easier. That way, Chloe would only have to decide on what music to play. And from the way the meeting was going with this latest DJ, that was exactly what they would be doing.

Chloe had heard about the guy from a friend of a friend, and since he came so highly recommended, Travis was ready to hire him sight unseen. But Chloe had insisted they interview the DJ anyway. So, after work, they had gone out to dinner, and then over to the club where the guy worked.

To Travis, one DJ was pretty much like another, and this one was no better and no worse than any of the others that he and Chloe had seen. But Chloe had her own set of criteria when it came to hiring a DJ, and as he listened to her ask the man question after question, he felt his patience wearing thin. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore.

Moving his arm from the back of Chloe’s chair to her shoulders, he leaned forward. “You’re hired,” he told the DJ.

Chloe blinked, turning to look at him in surprise. “But honey, I haven’t asked all my questions.”

“You’ve asked enough,” Travis said firmly, and then glanced at the man seated across the table from them. “Chloe will email you with all the information and send you a deposit.”

The DJ nodded and, muttering something about needing to get back to work, quickly pushed back his chair and left before Chloe could stop him.

Chloe stared after the man for a moment, and then turned her gaze on her handsome fiancé. “I can’t believe you hired him just like that! Don’t you realize how important this is?”

Travis lifted a brow. “Of course I do,” he said. “That’s why I thought it best to go ahead and hire him before someone else grabbed him up. From what I could tell, he gave good answers to every one of your questions.”

She frowned. “Well, yeah, but...”

He leaned in to kiss her on the mouth. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go home before you change your mind.”

Pushing back his chair, Travis took her hand and gently pulled her to her feet. Chloe hesitated for a moment, but then allowed her tall, athletic boyfriend through the throng of people and out of the noisy dance club. She had really wanted to ask the guy a few more questions. And she had never even gotten around to asking for his references. Maybe they could still go back, she thought. But Travis was already steering her toward the car with a determined look on his face. What had gotten into him? she wondered.

Chloe folded her arms and stared sullenly out the window on the drive home. It wasn’t that she hadn’t liked the DJ; it was just that she had wanted to look at some others before she made a decision. In fact, she had already had several other DJ’s lined up for them to see. But then her fiancé had jumped in and simply hired the guy without even asking her.

She wanted their wedding day to be perfect, and it bothered her that Travis didn’t seem to be putting as much effort into it as she was. Whenever she asked him a question about anything related to their wedding, he would look up from whatever it was he was doing, sigh, and tell her that whatever decision she made would be fine with him. He should at least have an opinion, darn it! He was treating this like a joke!

Back at their condo, Chloe rounded on Travis the moment they were in the door. “I still can’t believe what you did back there!” she said, tossing her purse onto the table in the entryway.

Travis gave her an impatient look. “We’re getting married in a week, Chloe,” he said. “We’ve been going back and forth for weeks about what DJ to hire. If I left it up to you, you’d still be looking for one the day before the wedding.”

“I would not!” she protested.

He lifted a brow. “Chloe, that was the fifth DJ we saw. What were you going to do? Drag me to every club on the California coast until you found the right one?”

“Of course not!” she snapped. “I just wanted to check out a few more before we made a decision.”

Travis ran his hand through his blond hair. “Why? Our friends said this guy is really good. And we weren’t going to find anyone better on such short notice.”

Her blue eyes flashed. “That’s not the point!” she said. “You shouldn’t have made the decision to hire him on your own!”

His mouth tightened. “Well, one of us had to!”

Her brow furrowed. “What exactly do you mean by that?” she demanded.

“I mean that this is a case where you might be overanalyzing things a little bit too much,” he said. “For heaven’s sake, the guy is just playing records! Why would you ask him what he went to college for?”

Her eyes went wide. “I can’t believe you can say that!” she exclaimed. “I was just trying to judge what kind of person he is.”

He gave her an exasperated look. “Honey, we don’t care what kind of person he is. He can hold up a convenience store before the wedding, as long as he gets there on time.”

Chloe was shocked. How could he be so cavalier about such an integral part of their wedding? “Are you insane!” she said. “Or are you purposely trying to ruin the wedding?”

Travis sighed. “I’m not trying to ruin anything,” he said. “I was just helping you pick out a DJ.”

“The wrong DJ!” she shot back.

“He’ll be just fine, honey,” her boyfriend said. “And besides, it’s done already.”

With that, Travis turned away as if the conversation was over. She couldn’t believe that he would turn his back on her!

Angrier than she’d ever been at Travis, Chloe stomped her foot. “We’ll see about that!” she announced. “I’m going to call him right now and tell him that we’ve changed our minds.”

As she spoke, she reached for her purse so that she could get the business card the DJ had given her, but Travis caught her arm.

“Okay, that’s it!” Travis growled.

Holding onto her arm, he marched her over to the sectional couch.

“Honey, what are you doing?” she asked.

But Travis didn’t answer her. Instead, he sat down on the couch and, in one swift motion, gave her arm a tug that sent her tumbling over his knee.

For a moment, Chloe was so stunned that she simply lay there draped over her boyfriend’s knee, her long, blond hair hanging down around her face, her hands on the carpeted floor. Then, almost automatically, she tried to push herself upright. But her boyfriend’s strong hand on her back held her in place.

Annoyed, Chloe craned her head to look over her shoulder at him. “Travis, what...?”

His jaw clenched. “This had been building up for four weeks, and I think it’s time I did something about it.”

Her brow furrowing, Chloe opened her mouth to ask her boyfriend what he was talking about when realization suddenly dawned on her. She could think of only one reason he would put her over his knee like this. No way, she told herself. He wouldn’t dare!

But a moment later, his hand smacked down hard on her upturned bottom. She gasped. He would dare!

“Owwwww!” she yelped, trying to push herself up off his lap again. “Travis, this isn’t funny! Let me up!”

“No, it isn’t funny,” he agreed. As he spoke, he brought his hand down again, this time on her other cheek, and she yelped. “And neither is your attitude...Smack!...you’ve been...Smack!...acting like a...Smack!...spoiled brat...Smack!...ever since...Smack!...we set a date...Smack!...for our wedding...Smack!...and I’m tired of it!”

Chloe barely heard what he was saying as she squirmed against his hold. The short skirt she was wearing offered little protection, and the spanks were really starting to sting now. “Owwwww! Owwwww! Owwwww! Owwwww! Owwwww!” she protested. “Honey, that hurts!”

But Travis ignored her protests, his hand coming down over and over again on poor defenseless derriere. “You’ve been obsessing over everything!” he scolded. “The invitations, the guest list, the menu, the flowers, the dress...”

The list went on and on, and her boyfriend punctuated each thing on it with a hard spank, much to Chloe’s dismay. Even more surprising was that no matter how much she protested and squirmed, he still kept spanking her. Back and forth he went, alternating from side to side until her ass felt like it was on fire.

“And it’s going to stop,” he told her. “Do you understand me?”

Biting back a sharp yelp as his hand delivered another stinging smack, Chloe nodded her head vigorously. “Yes, yes, yes!” she agreed. “I’ll stop, I promise!”

Right then, she probably would have agreed to almost anything to get him to stop spanking her, she thought. Her words had the desired effect, because after several more well-aimed smacks to her upturned bottom, Travis finally stopped.

From where she lay draped over his knee, Chloe let out a sigh of relief. Never having been spanked before, she hadn’t known that it could sting so much, but her bottom felt like it was throbbing. She couldn’t believe he had just done that!

Without a word, Travis gently took her arm and helped her up. Once on her feet, Chloe reached back to cup her freshly-spanked ass. Ouch! she thought. She wanted to look at him in outrage and ask him what the heck he thought he’d been doing, but she was so embarrassed that all she could seem to do was stare down at the floor. She imagined that her face was blushing as much as her bottom, and she didn’t want him to see it.

“I meant what I said, Chloe,” Travis warned. “Our wedding is supposed to be about joy and happiness, not about freaking out over every minor detail. If you don’t stop being such a pain in the butt, I’m going to put you over my knee again. Is that understood?”

A pain in the butt! Travis had never said anything like that to her, and she was so shocked that all she could do was nod her head. But apparently, that wasn’t good enough for Travis because he gently lifted her chin and tilted her head up.

“Is it?” he asked.

Her face flamed even hotter. Oh God, she thought, he actually expected an answer. Swallowing hard, she looked up at him from beneath lowered lashes. “Yes,” she said very softly.

Her boyfriend nodded. “Good,” he said, his tone softening. “I’m going upstairs to get ready for bed. You coming?”

She blinked in surprise. How in the world could he act as if everything was completely normal when he had just put her over his knee and spanked her? “Uhm...” she stammered. “I’ll be up in a minute.”

Nodding, he turned and went upstairs. Chloe stood where she was, rubbing her still-stinging bottom. Why the heck had he spanked her? Granted, she might have been a little stressed-out lately, but that was a far cry from his claim that she was freaking out over every little detail. She just wanted everything to be perfect for their wedding. What was wrong with that? Nothing, as far as she was concerned. And if anyone was stressed-out, it was Travis. That’s the only way she could explain him spanking her like he had.

And what did he mean, that if she didn’t stop being such a pain, he would spank her again? Like she would ever let him do that again. He had surprised her this time, but there was no was she would be caught so off guard again. That was the first and only spanking he was ever going to give her! Close this window [X]